Repost Friday: New Arrival

Friday, October 26, 2007

We've a new inmate in the house. A small marmalade and cream boy cat, a rescued stray who has been fostered by a very kind Malay lady in our neighbourhood.

We weren't ready for another cat but Au has been fretting since Scoop passed away. As much as we try, human people just don't have the necessary skills cat people have when it comes to patrolling and playing race and chase.

Au has been angelic. The first night he saw the kitten, he sat and watched with big eyes. When we put the kitten to bed, Au came to sit with us, sniffing us over intently.

The first morning, we let the kitten explore my office and Scoop's room. He's a brave little thing and he was careering all over the place, playing with a pingpong ball by lunchtime.

He sniffed over a sleeping Au in the afternoon, but when Au woke up and touched whiskers with him in a friendly way, the kitten puffed up like a blowfish and hissed. Surprised and hurt, Au walked off. That little scene was repeated later in the day.

On the morning of the third day, yesterday, Au looked at the kitten, turned his back and stalked off. He stopped at the door, turned around and gave a theatrical hiss.

Surprisingly this did the trick. The kitten followed him about yesterday afternoon, sniffing excitedly at all the place Au touched. And Au has been looking at this little scrap of fur with a small smile. They touched whiskers last night (without hissing!) so I'm hoping they'll be firm friends soon.

aawww....sweet! Target is such a cute little kitten! It's always interesting to hear how animals make friends. I like the Gotcha Day idea because we don't know exactly when Earnest was born. And we got Earnest and Oliver on the same day. I didn't know some cats had crooked or "broken" tails naturally. I tried to google photos but with no luck so far.